DEATH TOLL RISES AS 217 PEOPLE,SHOOL CHILDREN FOUND DEAD IN MEXICO..

Mexico earthquake: Death toll rises to at least 217
people, including school children found dead under rubble in their
classrooms

BY BENEDICT ODINAKA writing for ODOGWU MEDIA.

The powerful earthquake that struck on Tuesday near the town of
Raboso in Puebla, about 76 miles southeast of Mexico City, has killed at
least 217 people.

The quake toppled homes, schools, and apartment buildings. A
volunteer worker said he and other rescuers managed to get into a
collapsed classroom where they found all the people in the class dead.
Dozens of children remain unaccounted for.

Rescue operations are still ongoing. Desperate searchers shouted
"quiet" and listened for faint voices in the rubble where a Mexican
school once stood, as rescuers used trained dogs and their bare hands to
reach any survivors of Tuesday's magnitude-7.1 earthquake.

Volunteer rescue worker Pedro Serrano, 29, a doctor, told The
Associated Press: "We dug holes, then crawled in on our bellies. We
managed to get into a collapsed classroom. We saw some chairs and wooden
tables. The next thing we saw was a leg, and then we started to move
rubble and we found a girl and two adults — a woman and a man."
At least 25 bodies were recovered from Escuela Enrique Rebsamen – all
but four of the victims were children. Serrano said he found all the
people in a classroom dead, and heard "small noises" near the site,
though it’s unclear which direction it was coming from. A mix of
neighborhood volunteers, police and firefighters used trained dogs and
their bare hands to search through the school's rubble. The crowd of
anxious parents outside the gates shared reports that two families had
received Whatsapp messages from girls trapped inside, but that could not
be confirmed.

The deadly earthquake struck on the 32nd anniversary of
the 1985 earthquake that left an estimated 10,000 people dead and left
tens of thousands injured or homeless in Mexico. Residents in Mexico had
conducted earthquake drills just hours earlier. The earthquake occurred
just two weeks after a magnitude 8.1 tremor in the south of the country
killed more than 90 people and caused buildings in Mexico City to sway
for more than a minute. President Enrique Pena Nieto called that
earthquake the biggest quake the country has seen in a century.
The federal government declared a state of disaster in Mexico City,
freeing up emergency funds. President Nieto said he had ordered all
hospitals to open their doors to the injured. Mexico City's mayor said
buildings fell at 44 places in the capital alone, and that 50 to 60
people were rescued. Pictures fell from walls, objects were shaken off
of flat surfaces and computer monitors toppled over. Some people dove
for cover under desks. Damaged buildings in the capital included the
Philippines Embassy, but staffers were unhurt. At least 70 people who
were in the capital were hospitalized, authorities said.
World leaders have taken to Twitter to commiserate with Mexico over the disaster.
Trump wrote: "God bless the people of Mexico City. We are with you and will be there for you.

DEATH TOLL RISES AS 217 PEOPLE,SHOOL CHILDREN FOUND DEAD IN MEXICO..
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Wednesday, September 20, 2017
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